RUSSIA, Moscow. (Our Correspondent). Today, in the Tagan District Court, organizers and participants in the exhibition "Careful, Religion!" at the A. D. Saxarov Museum, Director Yuri Samodurov, Museum Associate Ludmila Vasilovska, and artist Anna Mikhalchuk, received their sentences. The trial was continued from June 15th of last year. Anna Mikhalchuk was pardoned. Yuri Samodurov and Ludmila Vasilovska were fined 100 thousand rubles each.

The exhibition "Careful, Religion!" opened at the A. D. Saxarov Museum on January 14th, 2003. According to participants and organizers, the exhibit-s name had a double meaning. On one side was the need to respect the rights of believers. On the other side, was a warning against religious fanaticism and religious intolerance.
The exhibition received an extremely negative reaction in Orthodox circles. Four days after its opening, a group of Orthodox extremists broke into the museum building and destroyed the exhibit. The criminal case regarding the attack was dismissed.
The General Procurator's office filed a criminal case against the organizers of the exhibition on the charge that their actions were ?-directed to excite hatred or hostility, and to humiliate a person or group of people in the basis of race, nationality, language, origin, religion, or social group".
None of the defendants admitted any wrongdoing.
The defense insisted on the constitutional right of the defendants to freedom of speech, including by means of the artistic creation.
Representatives of Russian human rights organizations consider attacks on cultural institutions to be political repression.
Attorneys for the defendants stated that they intended to appeal Samodurov and Vasilovska-s sentences.